Power, Politics, and Platforms in the Age of AI

Facebook has emerged as a central battleground for political communication in India and globally. Political parties increasingly blend authentic messaging with AI-generated content including deepfakes and region-specific videos to influence opinion and mobilize voters at unprecedented scale.

India is among Facebook’s most important markets, with an estimated 384 million active users in 2025, making the platform a dominant channel for political outreach. Visual content drives engagement: global studies show nearly two-thirds of users regularly share photos or videos, underscoring the persuasive power of short-form visuals in shaping narratives.

This engagement has professionalized political campaigning. Dedicated digital teams and marketing agencies now operate at industrial scale, optimizing content for algorithms and data-driven amplification. While this boosts reach, it has also intensified concerns around inflammatory speech, coordinated manipulation, and electoral integrity.

AI-generated and deepfake videos further complicate the ecosystem. These tools lower costs and accelerate production, enabling hyper-personalized messaging while blurring the line between reality and fabrication. The growing volume of deepfakes highlights the lack of a built-in trust verification mechanism; integrating a trust factor engine to validate video authenticity before posting could curb misinformation and abuse.

Against this backdrop, Meta Platforms has strengthened its infrastructure through a multi-year cloud agreement with Google Cloud, reflecting how competition and cooperation coexist in the AI age.

Meanwhile, independent researchers analyzing political content via transparency tools and OSINT face access constraints, raising fresh questions about platform accountability and research freedom.